My day did not end or start, it just was. After waking at a normal time, going to work, coming home, cleaning a bit, having a mini New Girl marathon and grabbing a beer at a local eatery, I made my way back home to finally get packed for 5 days of adventure in New York City. I thought I would pack, wash my hair, take a nap and then head to Groome’s to hope a shuttle to the airport. What I ended up doing was organizing, picking up a friend who’d been jumped and beat up by a couple of polo shirt wearing fraternity boy wannabes. I stayed up to make sure he did not have a concussion and then I had to leave. Planes are like death. They wait for no one.
At 5:40, on no sleep since I awoke at 8am, I hurry to catch the 6am Groome’s to Atlanta. I make it just in time. I think to myself, maybe I will get a nice ride with someone else at the wheel, and I can catch a quick nap. All that might have been possible, too, if I hadn’t gotten the rudest, craziest driver they could find. He hit every bump on the road. It was the roughest hour and a half of driving I’ve ever experienced. I slept for 15 minutes off and on. That’s right, in the whole hour and a half, 15 minutes of sleep. It was such a relief to get off of that transport that I gave him a tip because he was no longer driving me.
I’d already printed my ticket, so I make my way to security. I had two bags: a backpack and a carpet bag. I have clothes and shoes for 5 days, a laptop, an iPad, an iPhone, a hard drive and a wireless keyboard. I take off my shoes, I put everything in the bins, nothing in my pockets, walk through the metal detectors and *beep*. Check my pockets, no jewelry, no belt, nothing up my sleeves. *Beep* The two finger call for a female to check me. The explanation for being searched is very in depth, but in the end, you get felt up. It’s that moment your mother has warned you about. Better have your nice undies on. Just kidding, they don’t check your undies, but apparently, underwire in a bra is the deal breaker when it comes to airport security. All of us large breasted women eventually will get searched. As if having large breasts wasn’t already a burden. After my pat down, I’m free to go. I can finally sit down.
The flight was uneventful, although we had heavy winds on the second leg of my journey. But I finally get to LaGuardia, I find the right bus, then transfer to the right train and in about an hour I’ve found my way to the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York.
Diner Coffee
Park Slope is a nice neighborhood, full of young families… or young people in general. There are a ton of small shops with really good food. I meet my friend KH at a diner where I’ve decided to have diner coffee for Gourmet Coffee Day. The eggs over medium are cooked to order, the sausage is tasty and my phone is charging. It is the perfect pit stop before the rest of my night. I go back to KH’s apartment, meet K2. I know I adore her when she insists that I watch Ron Isley from The Isley Brothers being the big boss in an Robert Kelly music video. Yes, they call him Robert, which lacks the formality of calling him R. They know him like that.
J'adore ces femmes!
We establish a game plan, a chill night if you decided you were going to go out. Nothing too visitor/tourist crazy, just a stop at their favourite happy hour spot, maybe stop by a store or two that I should see, a place to eat and then the Lucky 13 Saloon, which was the only place that was a must see as far as they were concerned.
On our walk from the subway, KH pointed out that Dale, from Top Chef Season 4 and the All-Star season, opened his restaurant the Sunday before and maybe we could stop in. Dale, I say? Dale Talde? The Dale that I disliked in his first season, but whom I came to like so much during the All Star season that I cried with him when he had to pack his knives? Yes, the very same Dale Talde. I insisted that we eat there for dinner.
We started the night at Eagle Provisions, which sounds like a camping store, but which actually has the largest and most extensive beer selection I’ve seen anywhere. Next we headed to Buttermilk for happy hour drinks. I was very excited about their $3 drafts which included Guinness. Their happy hour lasted until 9pm, although we only decided to hang around for about an hour. We stopped by the apartment where I met K2′s boyfriend M then we headed to Talde.
As we walked by, we noticed that Dale was actually in the kitchen. We learned there would be a wait and so we sat at the bar and tried the drinks before being seated. There was very little space to move around, so the seating was ample, though close. I asked our waitress if maybe Dale would let me ask him a few questions for my magazine and she said that if it slowed down, she thought he might. We ate some of the best food I’ve had (the bacon and fried oyster pad thai was amazing and I enjoyed the whole fish, though KH thought it had a really good taste but could have used a little more salt) and struck up a conversation with the people at the table next to us. We tasted each other’s food, got recommendations for other restaurants, and ended up laughing like old friends as we finished our meals and our tables were cleared. As the waitstaff finished taking the plates away, Dale Talde walks over, sits down, and proceeds to have a very down to earth conversation about his time on Top Chef, the inspiration for this new restaurant, why he chose Park Slope and a myriad of other things about the beautiful restaurant he now called home. It was a lovely time, a lovely, frightfully exciting time.
A blurry pic of the black swan...
We managed to convince our new friends to walk with us to the Lucky 13 Saloon. While KH and I are closet punk rock/metal fans (i.e. you couldn’t tell it to look at us that we loved both genres of music) the Lucky 13 is not a closet case. Band stickers covered the walls. Goth makeup on men and women abound. Leather jackets and spikes were much in evidence and a woman in a simple corset, underwear, and hose danced a ballet on the bar. Though she was more Black Swan than Swan Lake, it was highly entertaining and after our guests eyes took in their fill, we settled down with our PBRs and had a blast.
Tomorrow: What has 6 legs and is late for a play? or Anna Ruth & Angel do their best to walk the entire of NYC.
